Hezbollah leader emerges from hiding to plant a tree outside his home

Hezbollah’s message to Lebanon: Plant more trees

BEIRUT — A television station run by Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has aired a rare spot showing the group’s reclusive leader emerging from hiding to plant a tree.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has rarely been seen in public since his Shiite Muslim group battled Israel in a monthlong 2006 war, fearing assassination. He gives news conferences via satellite link.

But on Friday, the black-turbaned cleric was shown on al-Manar TV, shovel in hand, planting and watering a small tree in the southern suburbs of Beirut outside his home that was bombed by Israel in the 2006 war.

Nasrallah then urged all Lebanese to plant a tree outside their homes as part of a Hezbollah campaign to plant one million trees in Lebanon.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s fragile unity government.